Citing public-safety concerns, a state board took the unusual step Tuesday of suspending the engineering license of a former Neenan Co. employee who worked on school buildings across Colorado.

The state Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors voted unanimously to suspend Gary Howell's license until a hearing on his case.

The board also will issue subpoenas today to Howell and Neenan seeking documents related to the troubled Meeker Elementary School construction project.

"It was appropriate for the board to take action on this sooner rather than later," said chairman William "Bud" Starker of Starker Construction in Wheat Ridge. "I think we acted in accordance to the rules and kept paramount the safety of the people of Colorado while providing due process for the respondent."

Howell's lawyer, Bryan Kuhn, disagreed, saying he hasn't even been informed of any accusations.

"How can that be due process?" Kuhn asked.

A representative for Fort Collins-based Neenan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The board, which falls under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, opened an inquiry into Howell's work after a Denver Post report detailed a litany of problems with a Neenan school building in Meeker.

According to public documents, Howell worked on at least 19 schools for Neenan from his hiring in December 2007 to his firing last month on the day DORA launched its inquiry.

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Neenan has declined to identify all the schools Howell worked on as a structural engineer, saying, "We do not put our clients' names in the newspaper without their explicit permission."

Tuesday's action requires Howell to stop practicing engineering until a hearing several weeks from now, said DORA program director Angie Kinnaird Linn.

She said only once before in her 17 years on the job has the board suspended a license — involving a structural engineer on a collapsed building in the mid-1990s.

The board did not accept outside remarks, and neither Howell nor his lawyer appeared at the emergency board meeting, which included a 1-hour, 40- minute session that was closed to the public.

During the open part of the meeting, board member Dan Donegon, a structural engineer with HCDA Engineering Inc. in Colorado Springs, said a review of the engineering on the Meeker project found "serious issues" that pointed to work "below the standard of practice."

The review by Structural Consultants Inc. found the $18.9 million school had been designed to a seismic category of 1 — typical for a storage shed — instead of the code 3 required for schools.

The firm also concluded the building was susceptible to collapse in high winds or an earthquake.

"It raises the question of whether he actually did the calculations or just wasn't paying attention at all when these were done," said board member Jeffrey Olson, with Denver's Fentress Architects.

Board member Billy Harris, of the Denver engineering and land-survey firm Harris Kocher Smith, asked whether there was pressing need to act or whether more documentation was needed.

"As far as this licensee is concerned, if we just look at one incident, it may not give us a big enough picture," he said. "But I don't want to go on a fishing expedition of everything he's ever done, either."

Kinnaird Linn noted the board already had requested documents from Howell last month, and she said it was her understanding that he "had the ability to get the documents had he chosen to do so."

Howell did not have a valid license for a period while working on the Meeker project, but Neenan has said it was valid by the time he put his stamp on the designs.

Howell also was the engineer of record on the Sargent Junior-Senior High School in the San Luis Valley, which a review found needs repairs because a beam supporting the roof in one area cannot withstand snow loads.

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